Methodology that busts barriers to literacy
Large numbers of South African children struggle to understand what they are reading. In fact, South Africa was placed last out of 50 countries in the recently released Progress in International Reading Literacy Study (Pirls).
The study found that eight out of 10 Grade 4 pupils cannot read for meaning. If children can’t read, they can’t learn, so are more likely to be trapped in the scourge of poverty, hopelessness and unemployment. Being able to read enables children to live a better future.
Breakthrough to Literacy (BTL), a mother-tongue literacy course for Grades 1 to 3, has a very powerful method to teach children to read with comprehension. It also develops their writing and listening skills.
Published by the Molteno Institute for Language and Literacy, the BTL method utilises as the basis for learning to read and write, the aural and oral language skills the child brings into the classroom from home.
Masennya Dikotla, CEO of the Molteno Institute for Language and Literacy, says: “BTL is a very effective literacy methodology that responds to curriculum and educational contexts, ensuring that it achieves results with the children, who learn to read and write freely within the first year of schooling and with their teachers, who develop knowl- edge and skills in early literacy pedagogy (the method and practice of teaching) and classroom management.”
Molteno’s flagship programme is available in numerous South African languages. The BTL programme has been implemented in some schools in South Africa. Masennya explains that the programme is highly effective in developing children’s vocabulary and phonology (understanding how to express sounds). He adds that BTL is unique because it works in children’s mother tongue and combines the different elements of literacy pedagogy into one programme that is relevant to the life and language experiences of African children.
The system teaches children to read through various methods, including but not limited to phonic decoding and look-andsay strategies. The phonic decoding involves children reading a full sentence, then breaking the sentence into words and then syllables and sounds. The lookand-say strategies involve children describing what they see on a conversation poster orally and then the teacher guiding them to write what they have described.